The Colonist
by McFreeky
Summary: The people of the Milky Way galaxy know Troy Shepard as the First Human Spectre and the Savior of the Citadel. But the public doesn't know the whole story. It starts with a couple on the small colony of Mindoir...
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

"Damn it, John! How could you do this to me?!"

"It'll be okay, babe. Just a little bit longer, and it will be all over."

"I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HAAAAARRGGGHHH…. I hate you."

"I know, Hannah. I know," he said with a smile.

As John looked down at his wife, he could not have imagined a more beautiful sight. Where others would see a woman in agonizing torment with beads of sweat dripping down her redden face from exertion, he saw a serene goddess. Where others would see the white knuckles and vice-like grip that she had on the bed railing and her husband's hand, he saw a loving embrace that allowed him to share some of her pain. Where others would see a woman spitting venomous daggers disguised as words, he saw tenderness and caring.

"If you ever do this to me again, I will kill you and have you mounted in our home so the kids will still have their father figaaAAARRRGGGHHH."

The doctor buried under the sheets that wrapped Hannah's legs broke her train of thought. "The baby is crowning! One more push, Hannah, and his head will be out."

"Can't you give me something, Doc? Anything to ease the pain?"

"Hannah, you've been in labor for 12 hours now. We are a little past an epidural or other analgesics now. You're almost there."

John wiped the sweat off his wife's face with a cool washcloth. "You're almost done, hun. We're almost there."

If she could, Hannah would have shouted at him, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE!?" Unfortunately, all she could do was bare her teeth and look at him with such a vindictive, fiery stare that it sent a shiver down the nurses' spines. But John just stood there, looking back lovingly with a smile on his face, that disarming, charismatic smile that made her melt.

As she felt another contraction come, she squeezed every muscle in her body to get this little demon that not only made her carry it through last 10 months, but also took its sweet time being delivered. Hannah heard a gasp escape her husband's lips. She squeezed down harder on his hand, to remind herself that he is there supporting her and to cause him as much pain as possible for putting her through this.

As the contraction lessoned, the Doctor said, "The head is out. One more and this will all be over."

John turned to his wife and opened his mouth to speak, but was quickly halted Hannah's commanding tone.

"I swear to God, John. Say one thing and I will crush all of the little bones in this hand."

John took the hint and simply nodded, still grinning. He wiped away the beads of sweat that had begun to form and watched her as she drew in shallow breaths to get ready for the next and, hopefully, final contraction. He felt the contraction before he saw her push as her hand squeezed his. Never before had he felt such a force and feared that his bones would not be able to take the pressure and be pulverized into dust.

As John noticed the stress on his hand lessen, he caught the doctor whisking the newborn away to check on its vitals and suck any remaining fluid out of his or her lungs.

"You did it, babe. You did it. It's over," John whispered softly as he placed his forehead on his wife's. He felt the fire and sweat emanating off her and the deep, gasping breaths as she tried to recover from the amount of work she had just been put through.

After a few moments, the new parents heard a sound that, at the time, brought joy and pride. They heard their baby cry, intense, loud, and strong. Within a week, they will grow to hate the sound, but it demonstrated the strength and health of their newborn for now.

"Congratulations. It looks like Mindoir has another boy to celebrate," the doctor said as he handed the new baby boy to his mother. "Have you picked out a name for him yet?"

John looked down at their new bundle of joy and then to his wife. With a slight nod and the brightest smile he has seen her give since their wedding day, she gave her consent to the name he chose.

"We're going to name him after my dad. Troy. Troy Rexford Shepard."


	2. Chapter 1  The Shepards

**Chapter 1: The Shepards**

"Troy! Troy! Come on, Troy!"

Hannah Shepard stood at the threshold of her family's prefab unit, looking for her oldest child. The past 16 years have been both a blessing and a curse. Troy was a bundle of joy, albeit a handful one. He was a generally good-natured and obedient kid, rarely throwing temper tantrums or being overtly defiant. Because of his easy going attitude, very few people in their small settlement had anything negative to say about the young Shepard boy. He was friends with everyone in his class and acquaintances with the majority of the school. Although not the most outspoken of people when not around family or close friends, he was rarely found without a smile on his face and in good spirits.

Ah, that smile. It would get him out of as many confrontations as it will get him in. It was the same stupid grin his father had. The same one that made Hannah's heart melt whenever it appeared on his lips. Troy seemed to use this lethal weapon the same way his father did. Many times, Hannah and John caught Troy sneaking into his room, more than likely trying to hide his late night with one of the young ladies around the colony.

They had chalked up his adventures to the hormones that puberty had begun pouring into his blood stream. Still, there was one characteristic quirk that Hannah wished she could beat out of her son: his insatiable desire to scare and torment her with pranks. They were nothing too destructive: the automatic doors opening at random intervals when she was alone, lights that would flicker, a stove that will shut off after being on so long. Troy would watch the fruits of his labor, her startled face, later on a camera he had rigged to capture the spectacle. He was getting surprisingly good at hacking and fixing tech; Hannah just wished he would use it for more productive endeavors.

"Troy Rexford Shepard, where the hell are you?"

"I'm right here, Mom."

Hannah jumped at the sudden presence behind her and listened to her son laugh at her expense. How could Hannah forget the other talent Troy used to pester her? He had an incredible knack for sneaking around unseen and unheard. It made her wonder how many times her son has snuck out of the house without her or John's knowledge.

She watched as her firstborn moved from the back door to the table. He was a lean, toned young man from the years of helping his father on the farm. He stood at about 5'8" with more growing to do, and his already tan complexion only grew darker as Troy spent more time out in the sun. Over all, he was an average looking kid with brown eyes and dark brown hair. His most distinguishing feature was the Native American bump on the nose that stems from the Mexican portion of the Shepard's heritage.

"Crap, Troy! One of these days, you're going to give me a heart attack."

"I was only coming to see what you wanted. I came as fast as I could."

"Where were you?"

"In the barn with Felt. Someone has to take care of her."

For as good natured and well liked as he is, Troy had a penchant for being alone. He often took solace being alone in the barn, looking after the family mascot, Felt the sheep. Hannah always wondered what drew him to the barn and being alone in general, but never bothered to question him too extensively. Whenever he was upset or needed to work something out, he would head to his spot and return a few hours later refreshed and smiling.

"That stupid sheep," Hannah said with a smile on her face. "I have no idea why your father brought that thing here. Do you know how expensive it was to get one of those things to the Traverse? Eight hundred …"

"Eight hundred fifty credits" John interrupted with a roll of his eyes.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me, Troy Rexford. Don't know why your father even wanted that blasted thing."

"You know why," Troy responded. He sat up and intimidated his dad as best he could, "We are Shepards. It's our job to look after sheep."

"Rex is right, babe. It's a Shepard's duty to look after those that under their protection."

Hannah turned and saw John walk in with bags of groceries and a smile. He placed them on the counter, strode over, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "And don't think I didn't see you roll your eyes, Hannah. Where do you think Rex learned it from?"

"Well he gets his horrible sense of humor from you, _dear_." She said the last word with a sarcastic grin on her face. She was never one to use terms of endearment like her husband. "Where is Daily?"

"She is bringing in the last bag from the car."

"Tsk. Using your own daughter to do all the heavy lifting. What a lazy man I married."

"Mom, I'm not as fragile as you think. Besides, Dad only left me with one bag to carry in. Hardly a heavy load," Daily responded, walking in with the last bag of their daily trip to grocers.

Daily came as a surprise to the Shepard family. After Troy, Hannah vowed to never have another kid so she didn't have to go through labor ever birth again. Unfortunately, a romantic date with John while young Troy was away with a babysitter changed that. Hannah was about to make good on the threat of having John stuffed for doing this to her, but she figured what's done was done. She just hoped that the new baby would be easier on her during delivery. Her prayers were answered, and, only an hour and a half after the first contraction, the Shepards welcomed a new baby girl into their family.

However, Daily proved to be a bit of a trouble-maker in her 14 years of life. She was headstrong which lead to quite a few tests of wills with Hannah. Despite her slim and small statue, her outgoing and obstinate personality gave her a very commanding presence. Where her brother would use guile and charm to get what he wanted, Daily chose to bludgeon until she got her way. It was quite the amusing site, witnessing a 5'3" teenager stare down a 30 year old dock worker just to see the dock worker back down.

Troy was fiercely protective of his little sister. Shortly after she was born, John took Troy aside and told him, "As a big brother, it's your job to protect your little sister when Mommy and Daddy can't." Troy took it to heart and would keep watch over her, especially in the past couple of years. Whenever Daily's sharp tongue and stubborn attitude got her in over her head, Troy was there, trying to talk down the offended party before things escalated into a brawl. It didn't always work, and he has come home many times with a black eye or a bruised lip, trying to comfort his sister who felt sorry for getting him into such a predicament. Troy always got back at Daily for getting him into fights though as she was another favored target for his many pranks.

After Daily putted the groceries onto the counter, she stormed over to her brother. Placing her fists on her hips, she loomed over him. "What did you do to my terminal, Rex?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Day," he responded with a shrug.

"Don't give me that. It won't let me chat with my friends anymore, and I can't access any shopping sites."

"I think you should thank whoever did this kind service for you. Now you have fewer distractions so you can get all the school work you complain about done," Troy said smiling.

Daily huffed, spun on her heels, and stormed off to her room to futilely attempt to undo the damage that her annoying big brother has done to her only connection to the galaxy outside their small colony.

"Rex, go fix your sister's terminal. You know how ornery she gets when she hasn't talked to her friends or seen the latest shopping crazes from the Citadel," John told his son.

"All right, fine," Troy responded resentfully. As he started walking to Daily's room, he shouted, "I'm coming, Day! Don't touch anything! You're more likely to make it worse than better."

As Troy entered Daily's room, Hannah turned to her husband. "Those kids are going to be the death of me. If it's not from fright from all of Troy's pranks, then from a brain aneurism from fighting with Daily."

John walked up to her, took her hands into his, and gave her forehead a kiss. "You and I both know that you are stronger than that. You wouldn't go down without a fight. Besides, we can't have our grandkids not know what it's like to be spoiled by their grandparents, now can we?"

"Yeah. It will be nice to be able to spoil kids instead of disciplining them. Guess I'll just have to survive a little bit longer." Hannah turned to the groceries and started to take them out of the bags and placing them in their respective spots. "Well if they don't kill me, they will surely eat me out of house and home. Those two eat more than I have ever seen kids eat."

"They are still growing up, Hannah. They need all the energy they can get."

"I know. But still. It's almost like they are biotics. Like that Jefferson boy. The only way their family is holding it together is because the Alliance is subsidizing their expenses."

"Ah right. I talked with Robert the other day. He said Scott would eat 2 to 3 platefuls of food just to feel full. At most, I've seen our kids eat 1 ½ to 2. They are just growing."

"Maybe you're right. Come on and help me get dinner ready."

John chuckled. "Yes, dear."

* * *

><p>After dinner, Troy retired to his getaway in the barn. He welcomed the emptiness and quiet that he found there. While he did like to take care of Felt, he was more interested in his many tech projects that he hid in a secret compartment in the floor. He was no savant, and he knew it, but Troy couldn't help himself when he was tinkering with omnitools, shield projectors, or mass effect field generators. They were hard to come by in the rather small colony that Mindoir had, but he could often find discarded tech next to the security building. Over the course of 4 years, Troy had gathered enough materials to put together a couple of new toys including an omnitool and a small, low-powered shield projector.<p>

He was even able to upgrade the rifle his Dad had given him. John kept a few guns around the house to protect them from any wildlife that wasn't too friendly. He had taught Troy how to shoot, and the kid was a very good shot. He had the patience to line up the target and not pull the trigger until he felt absolutely ready.

Troy liked the force that the rifle put into its bullets, but didn't like that the gun was useless due to overheating after three shots. Troy found broken heat sink tossed carelessly in the garbage. With a few tweaks and a missing part from the tractor, he was able to fix it and double the amount of shots the rifle could produce before needing to cool down.

Tonight, his mind was focused on getting more power from his shield projector. He had asked Scott Jefferson to biotically throw small rocks at him to test the strength of the shield. It had taken a couple smaller pebbles without causing the charge of the shield to change. When he asked Scott to put more force into his throw, the shield was unable to cope with the extra force and fell with one stone. Fortunately, the energy of the stone was dissipated enough that it did not do any major bodily harm to Troy when it hit him. However, it did knock the wind out of him, and he crumpled, trying to catch his breath. That halted any further tests from being conducted.

"Gonna try to make your little shield be able to stand up to 2 rocks next time, Rex?"

Troy turned from his project to look up at his sister. She was standing at the door, petting Felt who had come to greet her. "Yeah. I was thinking I could put in a larger capacitor that would hold a bigger charge, but then the projector might not be able to handle the increase load. I'm also thinking about putting in a bigger battery, but…"

Daily cut him off. "You lost me at capicater. That kinda stuff was always your thing, not mine. You get so caught up in this stuff; you don't hear Mom calling you to come in. She and Dad figure that you are off with some girl, but, most of the time, you are just here, working on your projects. You are such a nerd," she said with a grin.

Troy laughed. "What can I say? Tech stuff interests me. And what do you do, besides chasing boys around, trying to get them to kiss you?"

"I don't chase boys around. Just the one."

"Ah, right. Scott. To be honest, Day, I think he likes you. He kept asking about you today."

"Really!? Like what?" Daily couldn't hide her excitement or the blush that began to form on her cheeks.

"Just about how you've been, and why he hasn't seen you around lately. I told him it was because of all the school work that the end of the semester brings. He also asked how you were doing with your… well, ya know."

Daily's former excitement vanished and a sullen look replaced it. She petted Felt without much thought, trying to find support in the family pet.

"When are you going to tell them?" Troy asked.

"Who?"

"Our parents."

"About what?" Daily asked, trying to skirt the issue.

"Stop being difficult, Day. About joining the Alliance. About being a biotic."

There it was; the little bomb that the two Shepard kids were hiding from their parents, from almost the entire colony. They found about Daily's abilities in the same barn over 2 years ago.

* * *

><p>Troy had done something especially terrible that "ruined her life" as Daily put it. He had posted on her social account her crush on a boy at school. She had stormed toward the barn looking for him, ready to deliver some real pain. When she found him, Daily started yelling and crying. Troy simply stood there and took it. He didn't realize that spilling the beans was this condemning.<p>

When he finally was given some time to speak, he said, "I'm sorry, Day. I didn't think it was that big of a deal."

"IT IS A BIG DEAL!" Daily pushed him. Except this was no ordinary push.

Troy saw a flash of blue emanating from his little sister and felt her small hands against his chest. The force behind the hands did not feel right though. It reminded him of the time his Dad pushed him out of the way of a runaway tractor. One moment, he was standing in front of his little, 12 year old sister, and, the next, he was on the ground a few feet away looking up at her in surprise. He noticed a trickle of blood coming from her nose.

Daily looked down at her hands with a mixture of wonder and terror. She turned and ran out of the barn as quick as she can. She ran and ran and ran until she could run no more. Daily fell to her hands and knees, trying to catch her breath, trying to understand what just happened. _How did I do that?_ She couldn't finish her train of the thought as she heard footsteps coming her way. She tried to get up to run away again, but her legs wouldn't cooperate.

"DAY! Are you okay?"

She didn't answer him, only posing the only thought that was going through her mind. "How could I have pushed you so hard?" she asked in gasping breathes.

"Day," Troy put his hands on her shoulders and made her look at him in the eyes. "I…. I think you're a biotic."

_No. I can't be. Not that._ She shook her head. "I can't be a biotic. Why wouldn't it show up sooner?"

"I don't know. We will have to do some searching to find out if any eezo was spilled before you were born. But that is the only explanation that comes to mind," Troy responded, wiping the blood that started to congeal under her nose.

Daily shook free from her brother, put her hands on her head, and started to pace, "This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening."

"Day, it's going to be okay. We have to tell Mom and Dad about…"

Daily cut him off, "NO! We can't tell them. They will make sure I see a doctor to confirm and all that. Then everyone will know. Remember what happened to the Jeffersons did when they found out Scott was a biotic? They lost all their friends because people thought they were all biotics and could read their minds. I can't let Mom and Dad go through that. No. It's been hidden this long. I can hide it until I'm old enough to live on my own."

"Are you serious?! We can't keep this a secret from them! What happens if you accidently use your powers on someone in the colony? There will be people at our door with pitchforks."

"I can learn to control it. Scott can teach me. He has been getting some training at the Alliance recruiting office. Please, Rex. Don't tell anyone."

Troy looked at her incredulously for a moment. Then, his eyes softened.

"Fine. We'll go talk to Scott tomorrow. You do know this means I'm going to be watching out for you a lot more than I already am."

"I'm not Felt, Rex. I don't need your protection."

"Too bad. You're getting it anyway." Troy pulled his little sister into a strong hug.

There, wrapped in her brothers arms, Daily finally let the magnitude of the situation overcome her. She felt bitter for the normal life she had lost. She felt ashamed for not sharing her burden with her parents. And she felt sorrow for putting her big brother in such an awkward position. So she cried, terribly, until there were no more tears left.

* * *

><p>"I'm not even sure if the Alliance will want me. I'm not that strong. I can barely lift a small rock. I can't make anything big," Daily finally said.<p>

Troy had found the reason for Daily's latent abilities after a couple of months of searching for any element zero spills. A freighter that was bringing in supplies to the colony had a small, but substantial leak in their engines. Daily was only a few weeks along when the leak occurred, and Hannah worked on the other side of the colony. She never gave it a second thought. It was the same leak that gave Scott Johnson his abilities, though Mrs. Johnson was much more noticeably pregnant than Hannah and worked much closer to the leak. Troy believed that this must be the reason why their power levels where significantly different.

"You and I both know that, with the right implant, you could push, pull, and throw things much heavier. You might even be able to create a small warp field if you practice enough. You definitely wouldn't have to use a crummy shield like the rest of us lesser folk," Troy said with a grin. "And I saw those messages on your terminal, Day. As soon as you mentioned the possibility of being a biotic, those recruiters were all over you."

"Yea, I don't think I should have said anything about it. Thanks for deleting those messages and searches. Although, I could do without you messing with my terminal." Daily lightly punched him in the arm.

Troy mockingly winced, but then started to laugh. "How could I pass up a perfect opportunity to mess with my little sister? It's my job as the older brother."

Troy turned back to his project, and Daily petted Felt absent-mindedly. They shared an amicable silence. After a couple of minutes, Troy broke the quietness with a question that has been bugging him ever since he saw Daily's messages.

"Why would you want to go into the military? You aren't exactly the military type."

Daily jumped at her brother's sudden question, but quickly recovered. "What do you mean I'm not the military type? You think I can't handle the training?"

Troy laughed. "Not at all. Actually, I would be scared for the drill sergeant who tried to tell you what to do. What I meant was that I don't see you as a military woman. I can see you being a journalist or even a fashion designer, but not a soldier."

"It isn't my first choice. It wasn't even on the list before I found out that I was a biotic. But now that I know, I don't have much choice. Either live life as a solider that is accepted or as a civilian being hated for something I had no control over."

"All right, all right. But you need to tell Mom and Dad. About both the biotics and the Alliance. You can't keep hiding this from them."

"I know, I know. Geez, Rex. You're as annoying as Mom is sometimes. And you roll your eyes like her too." Daily smiled at his discomfort as she caught him rolling his eyes. "I'll tell them in a year and 10 days. I promise."

"The day after you turn 16. I guess I can keep your secret a little while longer. Come on. We should probably go inside before Mom sends out a search party," Troy said as he walked to the barn door.

Daily smiled at the fact that her brother remembered that her birthday was only 9 days away, soon to be 8. She hurried to her brother's side and looked at him.

"Not going to sneak away and spend some quality time with your girlfriend tonight? You know Mom thinks you run around with all the girls in the colony with how much you sneak around. But I know that there is only one you have any interest in. You can fool her, but you can't fool me, Rex. How is Amanda doing, by the way?"

Troy didn't answer her, but felt the heat rising in his cheeks. He tried to hide it, but to no avail. Daily had caught on and tormented him with giggles all the way back to the prefab units the Shepards called home.


	3. Chapter 2  The Shake

**Chapter 2: The Shake**

Three days later, Troy found himself in front of Scott Jefferson. Scott's blue aura around him gave Troy an uneasy feeling, but he felt confident in the changes that he made to his little shield. He had found a larger shield projector in the trash 2 days ago, and, while the larger model was broken beyond repair, Troy was able to scavenge some of the components. These allowed him to upgrade his own shield projector. While it took a little creative thinking and, at times, pounding, he was able to double the shield strength and reduce the amount of time the shield needed to recharge.

Troy also found that the energy cell that he had was not powerful as the system would allow. This did not hamper the shield in any way, but Troy saw it as wasted potential. He found a way to rig his omnitool to further charge the shield projector with its own reserves. This resulted in a more powerful, yet temporary, shield produced as the omnitool's power reserves did not last long. Troy was about to test how much more powerful his new design actually was.

"All right, Scott. Just like before. Throw it with all you got."

Scott Jefferson was a quiet, reserved teenager that often kept to himself. He had very few friends and was more likely to be found with his nose in a datapad than hanging out with other people. He was ostracized for his biotic abilities, and bullies would occasionally gather enough courage to try to "put him in his place." Fortunately, Troy or Daily were usually there to make them back off. When the Shepards weren't there to help, Scott found that all he had to do was to project a blue aura around him, the telltale warning that he was a biotic. That was usually enough to scare anyone away.

Yet, his passive personality and sheepish demeanor betrayed the raw power that he contained. Even though he is only a couple of months older than Daily, his mother's proximity to the element zero spill resulted in a much stronger biotic potential. Even without an implant, he could already throw a small rock about 40 mph, lift approximately 50 lbs., and even create a barrier that rivaled some of the smaller sized shield projectors. His biotic tutor was attempting to teach him how to generate a warp field, but doing so left Scott exhausted and often times bleeding from his nose due to the mental strain.

"You sure, T? Last time we did this, it took you 3 minutes just to catch your breath," Scott replied.

When he was younger, John dubbed Troy his "little T-Rex" because of the amount of trouble he could get into in such a short time. The name stuck. John and Daily shortened the name to Rex while his friends changed it into T. There were only 2 people on this planet that called him by his given name: Hannah and…

"Don't hurt Troy too bad this time, Scott. Last time you messed up my date with him," Amanda yelled from the Jefferson family porch. Daily laughed beside her as Troy's cheeks turned scarlet.

Amanda Stone was a strong and clever young teenager. She was a few months younger than Troy, but much more serious and obstinate than her easy-going boyfriend. Troy found that the most attractive quality about her. Unfortunately, that meant she was never a girl to keep her opinions to herself, and Troy had to defend her almost as much as he did Daily. He was a cooling factor for her fiery personality, always finding a way to calm her down after such encounters.

And she could always make him blush.

Scott almost doubled over in laughter. When he finally caught his breath, he said, "All right Amanda. I'll be sure to only bruise him this time. You ready, T?"

"Do it."

Scott lifted up a golf-ball sized rock and launched it in Troy's direction. He flinched as he saw the blue projectile hurtling toward him. He squeezed his eyes shut and prepared himself for the possibility that his improvements did nothing. When he opened them a moment later, Troy didn't see the rock, but saw Scott looking at him with a surprise expression. He looked over to Amanda, only to see her just uncovering her eyes. Daily was watching intently, slightly disappointed that her brother did not crumble in pain.

Troy looked down at his omnitool and saw how much shield strength was left. _Sixty percent. Sixty percent is good. Beats a rock in the chest._

"Throw another."

"You sure? You trust your new shield that much?" Scott asked with a grin.

"Just do it, Scott. Before I lose my nerve."

Scott biotically picked up another rock, one slightly bigger than the last, and propelled it forward. This time, Troy did not flinch away. He watched as the make-shift bullet decreased the distance between them at an alarming pace. Troy saw the faint blue hue of his shield react to the high kinetic energy that the jagged projectile contained. He witnessed the rock suddenly changed trajectory when it was about a foot away, as if it was struck by another, and deflected over his head.

"HA!" Troy yelled triumphantly. "I knew it could hold up to another."

"How much charge does your shield have left?" Scott asked. He had picked up another rock and prepared it to test his friend's improved shield again.

"Only 4%. That last one was a lot harder on it that the first rock. Give me a moment. I want to do one more test."

Troy turned on his omnitool and typed in a few commands. He channeled the power reserves of his omnitool into his shield projector. The shield strength slowly began to increase and held steady at 48%. _A 44% increase. Much better than the 15% I got when I tried this with a full shield._

"All right Scott. Throw one more."

Scott threw the stone that he had been manipulating. Troy watched and hoped that his shield would have enough charge to deflect it like the one before.

He wasn't that fortunate. Troy saw the faint blue shield shimmer as the rock came within a foot from him. In a flash, it vanished, and Troy heard the wailing from his omnitool telling him that the shield was no longer viable. Moments later, he felt the impact from the rock on his stomach. He let out a grunt, took one step back, and fell to the ground onto his back.

Scott began to run over to his fallen friend, but was quickly overtaken by Amanda who had jumped off the porch and ran to him, screaming his name. Daily stayed on the porch and fell to the ground as well, doubling over in laughter.

"Troy!" Amanda knelt down and cradled his face in her hands. His eyes were closed, but he seemed to be breathing easily. "Troy? Are you okay?"

His eyes opened. "Hmm? Oh yea, I'm fine. Just trying to figure out why I got such a bigger boost when the shield was already depleted." He smiled. "Kinda hard to think when you're yelling at me though. Although I don't mind your hands on my face. Feels nice."

Amanda slapped his chest. "I swear to God, Troy. If you're antics don't kill you, I will."

Troy caught her hand and held it to his chest. She felt his heartbeat. It seemed a little fast to her. Her pulse quickened as well, and her face got hot.

"See. I'm just fine."

Seeing that Troy was okay, Scott slowed to a leisurely gait. When he finally reached them, he said, "I thought I was going to have to deal with your girlfriend's fury again. What happened?"

Troy let go of Amanda's hand and asked for a hand up from Scott. When he was on his feet, replied, "The shield wasn't strong enough to stop it completely, but it must have taken off enough of the energy for it to only get to me. It surprised me more than anything." He searched at the ground in front of him and pointed at a stone in the ground. "I tripped over that."

Troy turned toward the porch and yelled, "I'm all right, Day! Thanks for worrying about your big brother!"

Finally calmed down enough to catch her breath, she yelled back, "I knew that you weren't hurt. I know your hurt face, and I didn't see it. You looked more like Felt when you sneak up on her. I knew you were fine."

He checked his omnitool again. The shield was a full strength and the timer next to it said 54 seconds. _Just under a minute. I should try to make some tweaks so that the shield recharges faster. Fifty four seconds is a long time. Maybe if I…_

His thoughts were stopped short as he caught a delicious aroma in the air. His stomach growled and reminded him that, in his haste to test the modifications he made to his shield, Troy had failed to eat anything for breakfast.

"Do you think your mom made enough food for all of us, Scott? Day and I can take Amanda back to our house, and we can have some lunch, if she didn't."

"You know my mom says you guys are always welcome. I think she is just happy that I have friends."

"As long as you know we only hang out with you because your mom makes such great food."

Scott looked at Troy to see if he was kidding or not. He saw Troy's trademark grin and couldn't help but smile at his own insecurity. _Of course he wouldn't use me like that. He's the best person on this planet._ "C'mon. I think Mom is making space cow burgers and fries."

"Space cows," Amanda said in disgust. "Those things and their shifty little arms freak me out. It's like they will steal your credits as soon as you turn your back on them."

"You're just being paranoid," Troy said laughing as they walked to the Jefferson prefab unit.

* * *

><p>After eating, Troy found his favorite hill and laid down in the grass for his customary afternoon nap. Mindoir rotated slower than Earth and was farther away from its higher power star. This resulted in longer days and longer seasons than Earth. While this was good for farming, it wreaked havoc on human's 24 hour biological clocks. The best way that the colonists could circumvent this was to instate a mandatory hour of rest shortly after the midday meal. Farmers and others that were self-employed did not have to follow this rule, but companies and schools were required to give their workers and students an hour to sleep or rest if they wanted to. Few people passed up this mandated break.<p>

Troy brought up his omnitool and looked through the schematics and settings of his shield projector, looking for any adjusts he could make that could reduce the recharge time of his shield. He made a few changes that could be promising, but he wouldn't know for sure until he could test it again. As he was about to put it down and fall asleep, he saw a familiar silhouette block the sun from his eyes.

"I knew I would find you here," Amanda said.

"You know me so well. Sometimes better than myself. Where's Daily and Scott?"

"They are back in the house, talking up a storm," Amanda said as she lay down next to Troy and placed her head on his chest. She loved listening to his heartbeat. It was soothing in its steady pounding and often lulled her into sleep.

Troy gave a little laugh and wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in close enough to kiss her forehead. After she settled into his arm, he absent-mindedly rubbed her back and watched the clouds past in the sky.

"Do you ever think about the future?" Troy asked after a couple of minutes have passed.

"Hmmm?" came Amanda's groggy response.

"The future. Do you ever think about it?"

She placed her chin on his chest and looked up at him. "Sometimes. We still have a lot of time to figure it out though. What brought this on?"

"Daily is talking to Alliance recruiters. She thinks it's the only life that is really left open to her. It's either that or hide her biotics for the rest of her life. Just got me thinking about my own life."

"And?" Amanda's eyes watched him intently.

"I think I'm going to stay here. I like the quiet, easy-going life. I'll probably just take over the Shepard farm," he said thoughtfully.

"What about your little tech obsession? In case you haven't noticed, you are getting pretty good at it."

"I'm not good enough to do anything innovative with the stuff that's out there. I am good at using what I got, but I'm not going to be designing anything great. It's just a hobby."

Amanda said nothing for a while. When Troy finally took his gaze from the clouds above to look at her, he saw her thoughtful eyes watching him. After a few moments, she nodded and returned to her spot on his chest.

"Then it's decided. I guess I have to stay here too. Someone has to keep you out of trouble."

Troy laughed. "Yes, dear." He winced from a pinch on his side. She didn't like when he said that and let him know every time he forgot.

They lay there quietly, and, after a couple of minutes, Troy heard the soft snoring of his girlfriend. He almost reached for his omnitool to record the sweet sound, but thought better of it. Amanda was already very defensive about the fact that she does not snore. Being proved wrong would not make her a happy camper.

Troy laid his head back down in the grass and watched the clouds lazily drift across his field of vision. His eyelids began to grow heavy, and he drifted off into a peaceful sleep. Little did he know that this would be the last time he would sleep so soundly for years to come.

* * *

><p>Troy woke up much earlier than he normally would. His mind was foggy, and his eyes took several blinks to readjust to the world of the conscious. He wondered what could have woken him so early from his nap. He looked down to see Amanda still sleeping peacefully on his chest.<p>

_It couldn't be her. It looks like she hasn't moved the entire time._

Then Troy felt it, a tremor that came from the ground below him. It wasn't something overly jarring, but it was enough to make him take notice.

"Amanda. Amanda. Wake up." Troy gently shook her, trying to rouse her.

"Hmm?" She was slow to get up and blinked several times to get the sleep out of her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Something isn't right. We need to get back to the house and see if anything is wrong."

"What do you mean 'if anything is wr-'"

Another tremor shook them. It was much more powerful this time. Amanda's eyes shot open and looked to Troy for answers.

"I don't know what it is," he said, reading the question in her eyes. "That's why we need to get back to Scott's and find out. I want to make sure Day is okay too."

She nodded, and they both quickly got up and jogged back to the Jefferson's farm. When they rounded the house, they saw Scott looking off toward the main colony with fear. Troy followed his gaze and saw the reason for the horror on his face. Brown shuttles descended on the colony. Some dropped off troops on the ground while others flew around and shot at buildings with guns that seemed to be wielded onto their chassis.

Mindoir was under attack.


	4. Chapter 3 The Plan

**Chapter 3: The Plan**

"Scott, did your Alliance training include firearms?" Troy asked.

Scott was unresponsive. He kept looking at the events that were unfolding in front of him.

"Scott. Scott!" Troy grabbed his shirt and slapped him out of his melancholy. "Did your Alliance training include firearms?" he asked one more time, clearly saying every word.

"Ye…Yeah. I was never really good." A glaze crept back over his eyes as he turned back to the colony.

Troy was not about to lose him to the unholy scene that he was so taken by. He shook him to grab his attention again. "Do you have the weapon you use to train?"

"It's in my room. But it only shoots little pieces of plastic. They sting, but can't do any real damage."

"That's okay. As long as your dad has some spare metal ammo, I can switch it with the plastic stuff." Troy's gaze hardened in a way that Scott has never seen before then. "Now where is my sister?" he asked with a cold seriousness that was the exact opposite of the usual Troy.

"She's in the house, T, in my room. I told her to stay there while I came out and looked at what that rumbling was."

Troy did something then that was again a total reversal of his attitude moments before. He gave Scott a fierce and strong hug. It came on so quickly, Scott almost had the air squeezed from his lungs. "Thank you, Scott," he said, finally releasing him. "C'mon. Let's get ready."

"Ready for what?" Amanda chimed in.

"Ready to protect ourselves."

Troy led Amanda and Scott into the house, stealing one more glance of the destruction. It appeared that the invaders were sticking to main colony. While he felt guilty for the thought, he was glad that their attention was on the more densely populated area. Troy needed time to prepare himself to repel any attackers that may attack the farmlands. He needed to focus Scott, reassure Amanda, and calm Daily. And he needed to not freak out.

"Scott, go get your gun and then show me where your dad keeps his."

As Scott went to his room, Amanda turned toward Troy. "What…what are we going to do?"

"We are going back to my house. My dad built a shelter in case something like this happened. I'm sure we can hide in there with them."

"What about my parents?" Amanda had tears in her eyes.

"When we get to our shelter, we make radio contact with the other shelters in the main colony. I'm sure that they made it to one of them," Troy reassured her, rubbing her arms.

Scott walked back into the room, a Striker pistol in one hand and Daily in the other. Troy briskly walked over to his sister and hugged her tightly. After a few moments, he released her and started to give instructions.

"We can't stay here. We are too close to the colony, and the raiders will be sure to spread out. Our farm is farther away, and it has a shelter just in case we couldn't get to one of the main ones in the colony in time. Day, I want you and Amanda to get a terminal and find out anything you can. If you can, I want you to send a distress to the Alliance too. I'm sure the spaceport got one off, but another one wouldn't hurt."

When he saw the two girls make their way to the terminal, Troy turned to Scott. "Where does your dad keep his other weapons? We need to arm ourselves as much as possible in case whoever is attacking finds us."

Scott solemnly nodded and walked to what Troy imagined was his parent's room. He followed silently until he saw Scott pull a small case from under the bed.

"Where's your mom and Talitha?" Troy asked. He had not seen either of them since he and Amanda arrived back to the house

Tears welled up in Scott's eyes at the mention of his mom and little sister. "They went into town about 45 minutes ago. They needed to go grocery shopping for tonight, and Talitha wanted to see Dad as he got off work. I…I think they are still there."

Troy placed a reassuring hand on his friends shoulder. "I'm sure they got to one of the safe houses in time. Your mom is smart. She will know the signs. We will search for them the same time we search for Amanda's parents. Don't worry. Everything will work out in the end."

Scott wiped his eyes and got to work on pressing in the code for the lockbox. With an audible click, it unlocked, and he opened the box. Troy saw the contents: a Kessler pistol, two blocks of metal that served as ammunition, and a cleaning/repair kit.

"This is the only gun your dad has?"

Scott nodded. "Dad didn't like having guns in the house. I had to hide my pistol, and it's only a practice one. He only kept this one for protection and only begrudgingly gave me the code recently, just in case something happened. I think Mom talked him into it because she can't handle a gun."

The Kessler was not as powerful or as accurate as Scott's Striker, but it was a solid gun. Troy took one pass over it with his omnitool and found everything to be in working order. It seems to only have been shot a few times. Troy wished that they were at his barn. He had a few mods that could be put to good use in the Kessler to make it almost as good as the Striker. But they were not, and it was no time to be making field modifications on one of their only reliable sources of protection.

As Troy grabbed a metal block, the repair kit, and the Striker to switch the plastic practice ammo with the more lethal metal one, he took stock of the resources he had. There were the two pistols that were in great working order, his shields that have been tested against biotically charged projectiles, his omnitool that contained a variety of programs, and four teenagers, two of them biotics. The pistols and his shield didn't give Troy much pause. They have been tested, and he believed that they could do their job. The others were wildcards.

His omnitool had quite a few programs on it and most of them weren't tested. Troy had found the programs that he could install onto his omnitool through the extranet and from other defunct omnitools. While none of them were very advanced by any stretch of the imagination, they could be very helpful under situations like this, so he had installed them. One program loaded a tech mine with a small explosive that overloads shield projectors, bringing the attacker's shields down. He had programs to help him hack into radio chatter and some programmable mechs that they may have brought with them. His most physically damage addition was an incinerate protocol which sent a small tech mine that exploded and spread a jelly substance that could burn through armor. With the exception of the incinerate program (Troy had accidently set one off in the barn, fortunately only catching a small bale of hay on fire), none of them had been used. Troy didn't like depending on untested tech. Besides, the tech mines needed for some of the programs were still in the Shepard barn.

While he was good with both a pistol and his hunting rifle, Troy was no solider. He didn't know if he could shoot at another sapient life. Sure, he has taken down wild animals here and there, but an actual person? He wasn't sure if he was up to the task. He had no idea what kind of firearms training Amanda had, if she had any at all. She lived in the main colony and was well protected by security forces and mechs. He didn't think she has even held a gun.

Scott and Daily were quite possibly the biggest variable he had to think through. Even though they were both biotics, their effectiveness would hinge on their ability to stay calm through tense and demanding circumstances. Scott was strong enough to toss mass effect fields at targets and was able to produce a barrier to protect himself from fire. Daily had learned to produce a barrier from Scott, but it was much weaker. As far as offensive abilities go, she couldn't project substantial fields much farther than her hands.

Then something dawned on Troy.

"Scott, did your training involve any military tactics?" Troy asked, not taking his eyes off the pistol.

"We did a little bit. I think I remember some of it. Why?"

"Because we are going to need it if we want to make it back to our house. Think of the walk from your house to ours. Is there anything path you would suggest?"

Scott was quiet for a couple of moments, trying to recall anything that could help them. "The forest. It's a little bit out of the way, but it will give us cover since we don't have any protection besides these two guns. It's a gamble though. We don't know it very well and could get lost."

Troy looked away from his work, made eye contact with Scott, and smiled. "Day and I used to play in those woods all the time when we were younger. We know the way through. And we have more than you realize to help us. I have my shield and omnitool, and you and Day have biotics."

Scott began to get angry. "This isn't practice, T! I can't just make barriers, pushes, and throws without concentrating! I can't concentrate on anything right now!" Scott's voice grew quieter, barely above a whisper. "I'm too scared…"

Troy tried to think of something to say, something to reassure the only one in their group that had any military training. He quickly realized that Scott wasn't some new solider experiencing battle for the first time, and he wasn't Scott's commander. Neither of them were even in the military. This was his friend, and he was scared.

Troy let his façade fall and spoke honestly. "I'm scared too, Scott. In fact, I'm terrified. I don't know if we can make it back. I don't know if I could shoot someone. I don't know if I'm even doing the right thing. All I know is that I don't want to die. And I want to keep you, Day, and Amanda safe too. So that's what I chose to focus on: staying alive."

"Bu…but you're so relaxed and authoritative. It's like you've been in this situation a hundred times before. Like you know what you're doing."

Troy screwed in the final screw to the Striker. He scanned the gun and found everything in working order. He sat back and gave a weak smile to Scott. "Because I'm a Shepard."

Scott gave him a quizzical look, so Troy explained.

"My Dad always said, 'it's a Shepard's duty to look after those that under their protection.' Like I said, I'm terrified. But if I give in to my fear, I wouldn't be able to protect anyone."

Troy tried to give back the Striker to Scott. He shook his head.

"I'm no good with that thing. I've seen you shoot. You're good. You should take it."

"This gun is military issue. It probably has too much kick to it. I wouldn't be able to handle it. But you're used to it. You would use this gun better than me."

Troy lied. He knew he could control the gun just as well as the others he has fired. Yet he knew that Scott's familiarity with the gun would make him more comfortable when carrying it and more receptive to firing it. Troy needed Scott to be able to fire it.

Scott relented and took the gun. Troy picked up the Kessler and tucked it into the back of his pants. Scott did the same with the Striker.

"C'mon. Let's go see what the girls found out."

Troy and Scott walked back to the main room and found Amanda and Daily staring intently at the terminal. Daily caught the two boys out of the corner of her eye and turned toward them.

"We need to get out of here right now, Rex. They aren't just pirates. They're batarian slavers," Daily said as panic began to set in.

"We will leave as soon as we have a solid plan and supplies. Did you get a message to the Alliance?"

Amanda turned away from the console and headed to the window facing the colony. She looked up, as if searching for any help that would come from the sky. "We couldn't, but the spaceport already did. We saw an emergency message that said the Alliance was four hours away."

Troy looked down and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. _Four hours._ _That's too long to risk staying here. Looks like we have to leave after all_. He looked up and saw everyone watching him, waiting for his plan.

Troy opened his omnitool and brought up a map of the colony. "Everyone come here and take a look at this." They huddled around the display. "Scott says that going through the forest will give us some cover as we make our way back to our house. Now Day and I know the way, but it will take a couple of hours since we can't just stroll through, maybe more if we run into anyone. We probably won't make it before dark, so we may have to camp for the night. I want all of us to take a backpack and fill it with food, water, and blankets. Do it quickly. I don't want to be here much longer."

Everyone nodded and went to prepare for their impromptu camping trip. Fifteen minutes later, they were back in the main room with their packs full of supplies.

Troy turned to Scott. "Anything else we should do before we head out?"

"We should stay in a line. T, you should be in front to lead us through the woods. I'll be in back, protecting the rear."

"We'll do that. Amanda, stay behind me. Day, stay behind her. Understand?" He saw everyone nod their heads. "All right. Let's go."

Doing his best imitation of a solider that he has seen on vids, Troy peered around the corners just outside the front door to make sure it was clear. Satisfied that no one was around, he left the safety of the prefab. He went around the perimeter of the building to make sure the general area was clear before waving the rest of the group out. Troy pointed them toward the back of the house, and Scott led Amanda and Daily that way. Once he saw that they were clear, he stole one last glance at the colony.

Troy saw smoke bellowing from structures and heard faint screams of people being captured. He wished he could run down the hill and help them, but it would be a wasted effort. All he could do was to make sure his little group survived this onslaught.

Troy turned with a pained expression and walked away, leaving his burning colony behind.


	5. Chapter 4 The News

**Chapter 4: The News**

He rounded the house and found the rest of the group waiting for him on the other side. Troy brought up his map to confirm the path they will be taking. There was a half of a mile from the house to the woods, a very open half mile. It crossed over the Jefferson family fields, and, unfortunately, they had planted wheat this season. The crops were only about waist high, not enough to hide in, but enough to slow down anyone trekking through it.

Troy turned to the group. "We are going to cut through the wheat fields. I don't want us out in the open for too long, so we are going to jog through it. Don't tire yourselves out though. The woods may provide us cover, but they are difficult to walk in until we find a trail."

With that he got up, and the others followed suit. "You ready?" Troy asked Amanda.

She nodded.

Troy slowly crept away from the back of the house. After a few steps, his pace began to quicken. He looked behind him to see the others following a few feet behind him in the line that he and Scott had designated. Turning back, he started jogging, trying to limit their time out in the open.

Everything was going better than expected. Everyone was keeping up with the pace that Troy had set, and they were only fifty meters away from the tree line. Then, he heard a sound that made his heart sink.

"WE HAVE TO HURRY! THEY ARE COMING!" Troy yelled, trying to overcome the sound of engines that were growing louder by the second.

They sprinted toward the safety of the trees. Troy was the first to get there and turned around to see Amanda run into the woods, followed closely by Daily. Scott had lagged behind to make sure that the end of the line was clear. He was only a few strides away when Troy finally saw the shuttle. Troy watched the shuttle even after Scott had reached the woods, quietly praying that it didn't see them. He saw the shuttle pass by them on their way toward some of the farms on the outskirts of the colony.

Troy let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. He turned to see the others either on the ground or with their hands on their knees, trying to catch their breath and slow down their hearts.

"Is everyone okay?" Troy asked.

No one vocally responded, but he saw them shaking their heads. Troy turned to watch the sky and listen for engines, making sure the shuttle didn't double back to look for them. He didn't see any trace of it, and all he heard was Amanda's voice.

"Did they see us? Are they coming back?" she asked in-between gasps.

Troy took a moment to make sure the shuttle was gone. "I don't think so. They seem to be going to the farms though. It's a good thing we left when we did."

After a few more minutes, Scott spoke. "We should get moving. You said it will take a few hours to make it through these woods. It will be dark soon, and I don't think even you or Daily could find your way through then. We should get as much ground covered as we can before tonight."

"You're right," Troy said. He offered a hand to Amanda and helped her to her feet. He brought her in close. Whispering, he asked, "Are you okay?"

"Ye…yeah. This is all just so crazy though," she responded.

Troy could feel her shaking and tried to calm her down by rubbing her arms. When she finally stopped, Troy softly kissed her forehead.

"I want you to stay close. We'll get through this together," Troy said.

Amanda smiled back. "Thank you, Troy."

"Any time, babe," Troy said with a smile.

Troy winced at Amanda's pinch that served as punishment for using another term of endearment. He looked over at Daily and Scott and noticed them holding each other much like the way he was holding Amanda right now.

_Wondered when that happened._ "Let's get moving. Remember your positions."

Troy left the tree line and walked deeper into the woods. They fell into place and followed him.

"Take your pistol out, T. You don't want to be caught searching for it if we come under fire," Scott said from the end of the line.

"Right. Need to be prepared," Troy said hesitantly.

He stopped, removed his pistol from his pants, and armed it. He looked up again to get his bearings and to find the easiest path to walk.

"All right. Everyone, keep your eyes open for anything unusual," Troy said and restarted his purposeful walk.

They crept through the woods for an hour and a half, although it felt much longer to them. Troy stopped a few times along the way, sometimes so suddenly that Amanda ran into him. Most of the pauses were due to him looking for an easier path to take. Only one resulted in all four crouching with Troy and Scott reading their pistols. After a few moments, Troy decided it was a false alarm and moved on.

Troy paused again, searching for another path for the one that they were on was thick with underbrush. His hunt was stopped short by Scott.

"T, it's getting pretty late. We should camp and start again in the morning."

Troy looked behind him and saw what Scott had noticed. Amanda and Daily were breathing hard and seemed to be unsteady on their legs. He cursed at himself for not realizing it sooner and was glad that Scott was keeping an eye out for it.

"Right." Troy scanned the area for a clearing that they could use as a campsite. He finally found one and pointed it out to the rest of the group. "We will camp there for the night."

They made their way to the clearing Troy had pointed out. Once arriving, Daily and Amanda collapsed on the ground, unable to continue any farther. Scott and Troy were fairly spent as well, but they were used to physical exertion from farm work. The two set down their packs and began to set up a camp site where they could comfortably spend the night.

Scott began to clear the area of any debris that would be irritating to sleep on. Troy opened his backpack and pulled out two large tarps and a small heating unit. Instead of packing food and blankets like the others, Troy had gone to the shed to search for anything that would make sleeping on the cold, hard ground easier. He found the tarps easy enough and was very glad to find a battery powered heater. Troy didn't want to start a fire when it got dark, fearing that the smoke will give them away.

Troy laid the tarps down in the cleared area that Scott had made. He was glad that he brought them because the ground was still damp and cold from the rain a few days prior.

"Hey, girls. Come sit on these tarps before the ground makes your butts wet."

Reluctant to get up, they crawled from their position just outside the clearing to the tarps. Upon reaching them, they rolled on top of them, not even bothering to take off their backpacks. Troy chuckled at the sight of them collapsing despite the situation they found themselves in. After a few moments, the two boys realized that they had fallen fast asleep.

Troy looked at Scott. "We should probably get their backpacks off before they crush all our food."

First, they carefully removed their packs, trying not to disturb the sleeping girls. Then, the two removed the blankets that were roughly thrown into the bag and draped them over their sleeping forms. Finally, they took all four bags back to the other tarp to examine their supplies.

Troy and Scott were surprised at how well supplied they were, considering how quickly they needed to leave. They had plenty of water and a variety of snacks they could eat quickly while on the move. Daily even had the forethought to pack items that could be used to make quick sandwiches for the night. It made all the difference to have a full stomach on something substantial as opposed to snack food.

Troy tossed a protein bar to Scott and grabbed one for himself. "We should eat something. I don't know about you, but stalking through these woods drained me. Could you hand me one of those water bottles?"

"Thanks," Scott said and handed him a bottle.

"Don't be scared to eat more. We got a lot of food, and we won't be spending another night in the woods."

Scott only nodded solemnly. He seemed to be studying their supplies they had strewn about on the tarp.

"I know your biotics make you eat more than usual. I don't want you to eat less beca-"

Scott cut him off with a growling whisper. "Stop talking."

"Wh…what?" Troy was surprised by the seriousness of Scott's tone.

"I said 'Stop talking,'" Scott said louder and more menacing. "We are on the run for our lives, T. Slavers are attacking our homes, our friends. People are dying back there. And you're talking about eating enough? Are you out of your mind?"

Troy's head drooped dejectedly. He didn't respond, angering Scott further.

"Say something!" Scott said, louder than he had realized. He stole a glance of the girls, making sure that they didn't wake up from his outburst.

Troy kept his head down, but responded, "I'm sorry. I'm barely holding it together as is."

Scott was taken aback by the raw emotion that was evident in his voice.

Troy looked at him, with watery eyes. "When I saw the attack, I promised myself that I would get us all out of here alive. I needed to think clearly. So I stayed in the moment, never thinking about what was going on in the colony. I couldn't afford a break down. Figured I could deal with that when we were saved. It was easy when I had to stay alert in your house and our trip to here.

"But now that we are here, I can't stop thinking about it. I try, but images of the colony keep coming back to me. I'm losing it, Scott."

They sat there awkwardly for a couple of minutes, the soft snores of Amanda being the only sound. Scott finally broke the silence.

"Sorry, T. Everything is so messed up. I guess I just needed to lash out."

"Don't worry about it. I guess I needed to let loose too. Who woulda thunk that I am the crier, and you're the one that gets angry?" Troy said with a soft laugh.

They shared an amicable silence as they picked up their forgotten protein bars and ate them. Once they were done, Troy took both wrappers and stuffed them into his pack. John and Hannah always taught him to never make other people take care of his mess. He saw Scott pick up another protein bar, so he decided to try to link into the Alliance network with his omnitool.

Eventually, Troy heard rustling and looked over toward the other tarp to see Amanda getting up. She looked at him with puffy eyes and yawned.

"How long was I asleep?" she asked, trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes.

Troy looked at his omnitool to check the time and was surprised at how long he had been working. "Almost two hours now."

He looked over to where Scott had been only to find an empty indent. Troy scanned the woods to try to find their missing friend. When he couldn't spot him, Troy got up and started toward the edge of their makeshift camp.

Amanda quickly caught on to what Troy was searching for. "Scott didn't tell you where he was going?"

"I didn't even know that he was gone until you woke up."

Troy wanted to shout into the woods to make sure he was okay, but didn't want to risk giving away their position. The group was emotionally and physically exhausted and needed to rest before finishing their journey tomorrow. They couldn't risk having to break camp because someone found them.

So Troy's eyes tried to pierce through the growing darkness with little success. Finally, he spotted a blue glow slowly approaching them.

As it got closer, Troy risked calling out. "Scott? Is that you?"

"Yea, it's me."

Scott drew nearer, and Troy could finally start to see his face. He was amazed at how much light radiated from the biotic aura that Scott was projecting.

"Where did you go?"

"I had to go to the bathroom. I told you that. Obviously, you were too absorbed in that omnitool to hear me though."

"Sorry 'bout that. I was trying to get in touch with the Alliance. We should go to the bathroom together though. It's getting pretty dark, and you don't want to get lo-"

Troy was interrupted by a muted boom, and the ground started to tremble. Amanda and Scott looked to Troy. He checked the clock on his omnitool again.

"It must be the Alliance. They must have just gotten here." A smile grew across his face. "Maybe we won't even have to hide in the shelter. Maybe they will clear out the slavers before we even make it out of the woods."

"I don't know, T. The slavers have had a lot of time to bunker down. It could take them a day or two to root out all of them. I think we should still try to get to that shelter," Scott said.

"Yeah, you're right. Better safe than sorry." Troy then walked back and sat next to Amanda and smiled. "You hungry? We got plenty of stuff to eat."

Daily woke up half an hour later, and they made a dinner together that included sandwiches, crackers, and random fruit. Not much was said during or after the meal. Everyone had too much on their mind to start any conversation. The rumbles from the battle in the main colony didn't help either.

By that time, the darkness had consumed them, and they could barely see each other.

"I really wished we remembered flashlights," Daily finally said.

"Who needs flashlights when you're your own glow stick?" Scott responded.

He started to glow blue as he manifested his biotics. With some effort, he was able to expand the aura enough to cover almost the entire campsite.

"Don't overdo it, Scott," Amanda rebuked. "We don't need you tiring yourself out so much that you can't move. I don't want to be stuck with only Troy leading us."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, babe," Troy replied.

He felt Amanda's knife-like elbow drive into his ribs. Daily, who he saw was sitting very close to Scott on the other tarp, smiled at her brother's pained expression. She then caught a glimpse of a box in the middle of the clearing as Scott's glow receded.

"What is that box? I don't remember ever seeing it in the house."

Troy brought up his omnitool so he could find his way to the heating unit with its glow. "I completely forgot about this. It's a heating unit I found in the shed. I figured we might get a little cold tonight and needed it. I didn't want to start it before we needed it. I think we can start it up now though."

Troy flipped the on switch, and the heater made a loud click as it powered up. He then adjusted the heat output to a medium-low setting. While they wanted to stay warm, they also wanted its power supply to last as long as possible. Troy waited until he could begin to feel the heat emanate and returned to his seat by Amanda.

The dim glow of the heater drew the group's eyes to it, and its low, soothing hum filled the void that their silence left. Troy's eyes began to get heavy, and he struggled to keep them open as the warmth from the small unit lulled him to sleep. He then felt a weight suddenly appear on his shoulder. Peering over, he saw Amanda's head resting there with her fast asleep. He looked at the other two and saw them nodding, using each other for support.

"Come on, guys," Troy said loud enough to rouse them from their slumber. "We should all go to bed. We need to have enough energy to make the rest of the trip tomorrow."

"How much farther do we have?" Scott asked groggily.

"We are a little over half way through. I think we will only need another hour to get to the edge of the woods, and our house is only half an hour walk from there."

Scott nodded and, after a few thoughtful moments, said, "We should have look outs tonight. I know we are pretty deep in here, but I don't want to be taken in the middle of the night. We should break it down into 2 groups so we can keep each other up. The first group should take the first and last 3 hour period. The second group should take the middle 6 hour period."

Troy smiled at the change he saw in Scott. "Sounds like a good plan. How about you and Daily be the first group while Amanda and I take the middle watch"

Scott stood up and stretched, trying to keep his sleepiness from getting the better of him during their three hour watch. Troy grabbed one of the blankets and laid back on the tarp. Amanda positioned herself next to him and placed her head and his chest, finding peace in the steady pulsing she grew to appreciate.

Troy softly chuckled at her and spread the blanket over both of them. He laid his head back and let his mind wander, waiting for sleep to seize him. It didn't take long for the physical and emotional weariness of the day to overcome both of them, and they plummeted into their dreams. The images were not peaceful, but rather full of destruction they had witnessed that day.

* * *

><p>It seemed like Troy had just closed his eyes when Scott shook him awake. His brain protested as his eyes fluttered open, screaming that it needed more downtime. But Troy knew that Scott and Daily needed the sleep more than he did.<p>

"You awake, T?"

"Yeah. You two get to bed. See you in 6 hours."

Scott walked back to his tarp where Daily was already under a blanket sleeping. Troy realized he still had a weight on his chest and looked down to find Amanda still sleeping in her spot. He slowly slid out from under her, making sure that she doesn't wake up.

_I'll let her sleep for a little longer. No reason for both of us to be up right now._

Once he was free, Troy made his way to the heater to check on the charge. He was surprised to find that it still had 58% left in his power reserves. Once Scott and Daily were asleep, he turned the heater to a lower setting to conserve power.

He returned to the tarp he and Amanda were sharing and brought up his omnitool to try to hack into Alliance communications again. While the previous two hour attempt left him with little results, Troy figured that it could at least keep his mind busy enough to last through the night.

After an hour of futile attempts at connecting, Troy jumped at Amanda's voice.

"What time is it?"

"Holy crap, you scared me." Troy took a moment to catch his breath as Amanda let out a soft laugh at his expense. "It's about an hour after our watch started."

She frowned at him. "Why didn't you get me up? I'm supposed to be up with you."

"You looked so peaceful sleeping. I didn't want to wake you up. Besides, I took this shift so I could let Day and Scott have as much interrupted sleep as possible. I wanted to do the same for you. We aren't soldiers. We aren't used to this lifestyle."

Amanda puffed out her cheeks. "You still should have gotten me up. Someone needs to make sure you aren't goofing off." She notices the active omnitool on his wrist. "What are you doing, anyway?"

"I'm trying to get any information I can from the Alliance channels, but they have more firewalls and encryption than I have ever seen before. Even with 6 hours, I don't think I can even make a dent in it, especially with this omnitool."

"Then why not try the batarian's network? The slavers probably don't have the tech that the Alliance has. Maybe you can get something from them."

Troy's eyes widened, and his mouth spread into a wild grin. He lightly clutched her face and kissed her on the lips. She was taken aback by the sudden display of affection, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Finally releasing her lips, Troy said, "That's brilliant! What would I do without you?" He tried to stay quiet to allow the other two to sleep.

Amanda gave him a smirk back and shrugged her shoulders. "Probably in a place too tragic to believe. What a blessing I am to you."

Troy smiled back and turned his attention to his omnitool. Amanda watched as his fingers typed away as he tried to access their attackers' network. Usually, she got very bored watching him working with tech. None of it interested her, and he would often get lost in it and completely forget that she was there. At times, she got jealous at how much time he spent with his projects.

However, tonight was different. She watched as his fingers dance over the controls, executing commands Amanda could only vaguely guess at their purpose. She noticed the edges of his mouth curled up in a smirk and witnessed his tongue sneak past his lips, something that he did unconsciously when he was concentrating. She caught the sparkle in his eyes as he tackled this problem. Amanda saw that this was no mere hobby to him.

Then, Troy looked down at her with a proud smile. "I'm in."

"That only took you thirty minutes!"

"You were right. Their network has much lighter security. Now let's see what we got."

Troy opened up the channel that had the most firewalls built up to it. He hoped that it would be the command com. What he got was a blast of sound that startled both of them. Troy quickly turned down the volume and stole a glance over to the other two. Fortunately, they had only stirred a little.

Troy turned his attention back to his omnitool and listen for anything that could help them. Unfortunately, what he heard was indiscernible.

"Why do they sound like they are underwater?" Amanda asked.

"I don't know."

He checked the settings on his omnitool to see if he could clean the signal up, yet everything he tried only made the garbling worse. After a few minutes of trying, Amanda finally understood why they couldn't understand them.

"They're speaking batarian. We don't have any translators."

Since Mindoir was a fairly small colony and rarely had any visitors beyond the spaceport, very few colonists found the need to keep personal translators on them. Any vids or articles were translated by the terminal that was used to access them.

"Do you have a translating program on that thing?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't have all the languages in it. I hope batarian is one of them it does have."

Troy activated the other program and was rewarded with a language that the two understood.

"-tards are trying to force their way in. Hold them off! It isn't that big of a group. We still need more time to scout out the farms. Hopefully those _humans_ will be cowering like the vermin they are and won't put up a fight. We need to make this haul worth the effort," one voice said.

"Too bad we had to kill most of them here. We would have hit the jackpot. But they just had to try to fight us off," came the reply.

"How is it going breaking into that last bunker, Lieutenant?" It was the first voice again.

"Not great. They must have some tech guy inside because every time we get somewhere with bypassing the door, another firewall pops up to keep us out. I say we blow the doors open. We don't really have the luxury of time anymore, Commander."

"Do it. I want every bloody slave I can get off this filthy rock. And let the teams in the outskirts know that if they aren't back by midday tomorrow, we are leaving their asses out to dry. Now, let me know how the implants are coming along on the others."

"We lost a fe-"

Troy had tilted his head up while listening to the conversation between the two. When it quickly shut off, he looked down to see Amanda's hand on the volume control. She had muted it. He turned and saw tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"Sorry, Troy. But I couldn't listen anymore. I didn't want to hear… hear what happened to the others, what they did to them," Amanda said, shaking with emotion.

Troy quickly shut down his omnitool and grabbed her shoulder to bring her in close. "You don't have to apologize. You'll never have to apologize."

Amanda grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and burrowed her way into his chest as far as she could. She felt his warm arms wrap around her. She loosed a torrent of tears into his shirt as she let herself go in the Troy's comforting embrace. Even after the river from her eyes stopped, she did not let go. She just wanted to feel safe.

Eventually, Troy heard her sniffle and felt her slowly releasing his shirt. He heard a small laugh come from his chest.

"Sorry. Seems that I got your shirt all wet."

"Don't worry about that," he replied, still not letting her go. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back.

Troy felt her pull away and looked down to see her red, puffy eyes peering into his.

"Thank you, Troy. I feel much better now."

He smiled back. "Anytime, babe."

He waited for the inevitable punch, pinch, or prick that came whenever he used terms of endearment, but it never came. Instead, Troy was nearly knocked over when Amanda placed her lips firmly onto his.

When they finally parted a minute later, she placed her head back onto his chest. He was left on cloud nine.

"Don't think I'm going to kiss you every time you call me 'babe' or 'dear' or 'honey.' This is the only time you will get away with it."

Troy came down from his euphoria and laughed at her comment. "I won't."

The rest of their watch shift was spent talking about random things. They jumped from one topic to another like the time Felt got into the house and tore up the kitchen, or how Amanda used to hide from her parents around the house. She had gotten so good at it, the security forces were called because they thought she had run away. She slid out from under the couch and screamed "HERE I AM!" She got a stern lecture about knowing when a game is over.

Amanda suddenly yawned, which made Troy look at his omnitool. He had forgotten that it was still off so he wasn't surprised that the alarm he had set to announce that their shift was over did not sound.

"We were supposed to go to sleep half an hour ago. You go lay down. I will wake up Scott and Daily after checking on the heater," Troy said.

He found the heating unit to have a charge of 36% left in the batteries. Troy turned the settings back up, knowing that the time just before dusk was often the coldest part of the night. While he and Amanda should be okay while sleeping, Troy didn't want Scott or Daily to freeze in the dark. Hopefully the morning sun will be enough to keep them warm after the heater dies.

He walked over to Scott and shook him lightly. Scott opened his eyes rather quickly and sleepily nodded to Troy, confirming that he was awake. Troy walked back to his tarp and laid down a foot away from Amanda. She quickly corrected this by scooting over to him and lying on his chest.

"You're not going to get away from me so easily."

He laughed and kissed her on the forehead. In contrast to his wakefulness only a few moments before, Troy felt sleep surrounding him. He closed his eyes, only to find the horrors that his subconscious conjured up greet him.


	6. Chapter 5 The Promise

**Chapter 5: The Promise**

Troy woke up to the sun shining brightly in his eyes. He quickly closed them to stop the pain that felt like his retinas were being burned off. When he finally got used to the morning sun, he looked around camp to find Scott, Daily, and Amanda picking up food, wrappers, and the blankets. Troy slowly got off the ground.

"Ah, he lives. About time you got your big butt moving," Daily said.

"How long was I asleep?" Troy asked groggily.

"Only three hours. We decided to let you sleep longer since we have to pack up camp anyway," came Scott's reply.

Troy merely nodded. He was awfully tired the night before and was glad that they let him sleep in a little bit. He saw Amanda start to go after the heater.

"We should just leave that here for the time being, Amanda. No use carrying a hunk of metal around when we won't even be needing it. We'll just wrap it in the tarps and leave it here for us to come back and get later. Spread out the rest of the load between all four backpacks."

"Is there anything else we should leave behind?" asked Amanda.

Troy shook his head. "No, everything else should go. We should get moving soon."

They nodded and quickly finished packing up the rest of camp. Troy grabbed himself a protein bar and packed away the blanket he had been using. Once they were all done, they formed their line and moved through the rest of the forest.

The night left the group felling refreshed as they made great time through the forest. Within the hour, Troy saw the break in the trees. They came to the edge of the tree line when Troy signaled for them to stop.

"You guys should wait here. It's little over a half mile to our house. I'll be able to move quicker and make sure the coast is clear before we all move up. If I'm not back soon, I want you guys to go back into the woods and hide until tomorrow."

Amanda was the first to respond. "What!? Are you crazy!? I'm not going to let you wander around by yourself while there are slavers all around us."

Daily picked up where Amanda left off. "That's right. We go as a group or not at all. It's too dangerous to be walking around alone."

"Someone needs to scout out our place, make sure that it's safe. I can move quicker and quieter by myself."

"Why you?" Scott asked with a scrutinizing look.

His voice caught both Daily and Amanda by surprise. While it was quiet, it contained a commanding and serious tone. They had not seen this side of their shy friend.

Troy smiled back. "Because I know our farm the best. I know where all the dark corners and places to hide are. Mom always told me I would be the death of her with all my sneaking around. Maybe I can finally put that to good use."

Scott didn't reply, but continued to look at him.

Troy's smiled dropped, and he finally relented under his gaze. "I don't want to put you guys in danger. I can take care of myself. I have the pistol and my shield. I am the only one who can do this."

Scott finally nodded and looked around the area. When he found what he was looking for, he said, "We are going to be hiding in the trees by that boulder. We can run to it if anyone gets too close or finds us. It will give us better protection then the trees. How long should we wait for you?"

"Give me an hour and a half. If I'm not back by then, I want you guys to go back to our camp and hide there until tomorrow morning."

Troy stood up and held out a hand to Scott who grabbed it.

"Keep them safe," Troy said.

"Count on it. And leave your backpack. You'll move quicker and quieter without it."

Troy turned to Daily.

"You better come back. I won't forgive you if you don't."

"You should know me better than that, Day. I have to come back, even if it's just to torment you," Troy replied, grinning.

Daily punched him in the chest and then wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug. Troy returned it.

"I'll come back. I promise."

She finally let go of him, and he looked at the last member of the group. He saw tears well up in her eyes.

"If you see anyone you don't recognize there, I want you to run back here. Got that? No heroics. No 'I need to protect everyone.' We need you here. Got it?" she said forcefully.

"Yes, dear," he said smirking.

She pinched him hard on his shoulder. "I'm serious, Troy. I know you. You always have to be the hero. Not today. Promise me, damn it."

Troy wrapped his arms around her and whispered into her hair. "I promise."

He felt her shoulders shake and his shirt moisten. She finally lifted her head with tears streaming down her cheeks and kissed him gently.

"Good. Because I have something to tell you when you get back," she said into his chest.

"What is it? If it's important than-"

Amanda cut him off. "No. You have to come back if you want to know what it is."

"All right."

Troy smiled at her as they released each other. He took one last look at the group that he had been trying to save.

"See you guys in an hour and a half."

Then he took off, away from the forest, toward the Shepard home.

After running a quarter of a mile, Troy finally entered the fields. Unlike the Jeffersons, John had opted to plant corn this season. While they were not fully grown yet, the stalks were tall enough to hide him. Troy moved slowly through the corn rows, trying to not rustle the crops enough to give away his position. Finally, he reached the edge of the field that was only a hundred meters away from the barn.

Troy waited there for a few moments, looking and listening for anything that would alert him to any invaders. He saw or heard nothing, not even the soft bah's from Felt in the barn. He finally decided the coast was clear and moved into the home.

It was ransacked. Chairs were broken, tables were turned over, cabinets were barely hanging, and glasses and plates were smashed. Troy ran to the shelter that was hidden in his parent's room. His heart sank when he saw the hidden door ripped open and the shelter wide open.

He didn't want to enter and find his parents gunned down, but he had to know. Troy crept inside and was very surprised by what he found. Nothing. No bodies. No bullet holes. Nothing, but a small shelter torn apart. He searched for anything that would tell him where his parents went, but he couldn't find anything. Troy decided that he would quickly check on Felt, pick up more weapons, and return to Scott, Daily, and Amanda to tell them the news.

He moved quickly from the house to the barn. He swung the door open and discovered why Felt had been remarkably quiet. She was on the ground, lying in a pool of her own blood. There was a bullet hole neatly placed between her eyes.

Troy felt his stomach churn, and he moved to the corner of the barn to release his morning snack. Once he was done, he slowly moved around the sheep's body to pick up the hunting rifle he had accidentally left in the barn after tinkering with it and the tech mines for some of his omnitool's programs. After making sure it was in working order, he slung it over his shoulder and went to leave the barn.

Before he was able to get outside, a faint sound hit Troy's ears that made him stop. He strained, trying to catch it again. He heard it again, a quiet pop pop sound. Troy's eyes widened as he realized what it was.

_Gunfire. They found them._

Troy quickly found the first aid pack that John had kept in the barn, hoping he didn't have to use it. He ran into the fields, not caring about how much noise or movement he was creating. He only wanted to get to the popping sounds. Just before he got to the other side, Troy heard a scream, a few more pops, another scream, and then nothing. He pumped his legs even faster and hoped that his friends would be okay.

As Troy crested over the last hill that hide their hiding place from his view, he was surprised to see how peaceful the scene appeared. He saw the grass flow like a wave as the wind forced the blades down. He heard the rustle of the trees. He felt the sun beating down on him. On any other occasion, it would have been a perfect day to lounge around.

As he drew near to the boulder that Scott said he would use as protection, however, Troy witnessed the horror that took place here. He saw scorch marks of errant bullets on the ground. He smelled the burnt odor that gunfire was never able to truly rid itself of. He heard the lack of any birds that would normally be singing. He noticed shoes lying motionless on one side of the boulder. Scott's shoes.

Troy rounded the boulder to find Scott, pale and motionless. His eyes were wide with fright. His hands were desperately clutching at his neck. Troy saw a pool of blood that seemed to originate from a hole on the left side of his neck. He knelt down beside him and closed his eyes.

Troy heard rustling in the tree line and raised the rifle into firing position. He just as quickly stowed it when he heard a soft voice calling his name.

"Troy. Is that you? Help me…please."

"Amanda!"

Troy ran quickly to the spot the voice originated and found her sitting on the ground, leaning up against a tree. Her right hand held Scott's Striker while her left was holding her right shoulder. It was bloody.

"Oh my God! What happened to you?" Troy asked, moving Amanda's left hand from her wound to see the damage.

He set down his rifle and brought up the first aid kit. He ripped open her shirt, using the bullet hole as a starting point. He took the only tube of medi-gel out of the kit and applied it to hole. Amanda cried out in pain as the medical marvel attempted to fill in the gaps that the bullet left as it tore through her body. Eventually, she settled down as the anesthetic properties of the gel took effect.

"They found us, Troy. They found us. Scott tried to hold them off, but…" Amanda said with tears in her eyes.

Forty five minutes after Troy had left, they were sitting just inside the tree line, watching for either Troy or slavers. Daily began to get antsy.

"He's been gone for too long," she said.

"It's only been 45 minutes. Give him some more time. T won't let us down," Scott told her.

"I just don't like leaving Rex alone. He may be good at sneaking around, but he's too much of a hero sometimes. He's going to do something stupid and get himself shot."

"He won't," Amanda chimed in. "He promised me, and he won't break a promise. He may be an idiot, but he's an honest one."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. He's said he was more scared of your anger than anything else on this world, even more than Mom's."

"He said that?" Amanda asked surprised.

Daily nodded her head.

"Oooooh, he's dead when he gets back. I'll kill him myself."

"You can't do that. Scott and Rex are the only reason we are still alive."

Scott blushed slightly at the mention of his name. "He is the one leading us. I'm just giving some advice from my military training."

"Don't be modest," Daily said back. "Troy would have been lost without your help." She reached over and grabbed his free hand.

"She's right, Scott. We wouldn't have gotten this far without you," Amanda confirmed.

Scott looked away, trying to hide his reddening face. Daily smiled at his embarrassment and kissed him on the cheek. His face only got redder.

"I just hope that this is all over soon," Daily said, after a few moments.

"It will be. The batarians said that they will be pulling out midday today," Amanda reassured.

Scott spun on her with a questioning look. "How do you know that?" he asked with more force than intended.

Amanda shrunk away a little bit. "Troy hacked into their communications last night. They said that they were holding the Alliance off well, but they wanted to be out of here by that time. They said that anyone who wasn't back would be left here."

"Damn it, T! If I had known that, I would have said we should have stayed in the woods to wait until the afternoon. The only reason we should have left is because we couldn't stay out there for days. We didn't have the supplies."

"Don't blame Rex. I'm sure he wanted to make sure Mom and Dad were okay and to get in contact with the other shelters to check on your families," Daily said, trying to reason why Troy lead them out of the forest.

"Still, it was a risk we probably shouldn't have tak-"

Scott was cut off by the sound of gunfire. The bullets struck the trees thirty meters to their right. Scott looked at the field and saw four lightly-armored batarians firing in that direction. Their voices must have alerted them to their presences, but the slavers didn't know exactly where they were. Scott didn't want to take the chance that they would find out.

"Run to the boulder. I'll cover you," Scott said, low enough not to give away their position further, but loud enough for them to hear.

Scott pointed his Striker toward the four while Daily and Amanda took cover behind the boulder. Fortunately, they did not notice the two girls, so Scott did not need to fire. He summoned his biotics and forced a barrier to surround him. He quickly ran toward the boulder when he heard shouts and gunfire aimed at him. He felt the mental pings that told him his biotic barrier was reflecting bullets.

When he finally reached the cover of the boulder, Scott saw the two wide-eyed girls look up at him in fear.

"Stay down. I'll try to hold them off as long as I can. T will hear the fire and come to help." He smiled at the two of them. "Like you said, he can't stand not being a hero."

With that, Scott swung around the side of the boulder and shot a couple of times at the closest slaver. Most of the shots went wild, but one was able to land in his shoulder. The batarian growled as the bullet ripped through his flesh. He shot back at Scott which forced him back into cover.

_No shields. That means my biotics won't be stopped._

Scott heard garbled shouts from the slavers as he mentally prepared a biotic attack. He swung out again when he heard a break in the fire and popped off a few more shots at the injured batarian. Two more struck home; one caught him in the thigh and another in the gut. Scott stopped firing, brought his hand back as it glowed blue, and thrust it forward. A blue ball materialized from his palm and headed straight for the slaver that stopped firing to grab his stomach.

The mass effect field caught him squarely in the chest. He launched backwards, surprised they were fighting such a powerful biotic. He flew back, and Scott heard a wet crunch as he saw the man hit a tree. Blood spouted from his mouth, and he slumped down motionless.

Scott heard more gargled yells and gunfire as he took cover again. While his victory over one opponent was uplifting, he was beginning to feel the mental fatigue that the overuse of his biotic abilities brought him. He didn't have his implant yet, so it took much more concentration to produce the same results that a soldier would. Scott's barrier had been taking many hits, and, while it kept him alive, it was very mentally draining to keep it up.

Scott looked at the two girls and found them watching him. Daily raised her hand to just under her nose. Scott mimicked the motion and found blood slowly dripping. He wiped it off on his pants and gave them both a smile.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything stupid. Just need to hold them off until T gets back, Scott said. Then he swung back out to shoot at the batarians, trying to keep them at bay.

However, they were ready for him. As soon as they saw him move, they unloaded their assault rifles. Scott felt the mental pings of each bullet, and his concentration waned. His barrier fell. Scott quickly tried to retreat into cover, but a bullet caught the side of his throat.

He dropped to the ground, clutching his wound with both hands, trying to stop his blood from spilling out onto the ground. His brain fought to stay alive, his heart pumping erratically. He heard a vaguely familiar scream as his body grew colder. His mind sluggishly worked to place the voice and face that had formed over him. As his eyes grew dark, Scott was finally able to place it.

_Daily. I'm sorry…_

Daily was over Scott as soon as she saw him take the bullet. She held his shoulders and screamed his name, trying to bring life back to his clouding eyes. She heard gurgles and spats as he tried to get air to his lungs and blood to his brain. Eventually, Scott's struggles stopped, and Daily let out a horrifying scream.

Amanda quickly grabbed the forgotten pistol. She popped out of cover and began to fire wildly at her attackers. As soon as she heard a grunt from a confirmed hit, the pistol began to beep erratically. A small compartment of the pistol opened up, and heat emanated from it, almost burning Amanda's hand.

She looked up to find a batarian holding his right shoulder walk up to her. He grabbed her throat, slightly choking her. Amanda looked on in terror as he brought her close to his face. He said something indiscernible in his native tongue, lifted the pistol on his hip with his left hand, put it on her right shoulder, and shot.

Amanda screamed as the hot slug ripped through her shoulder. She grabbed at it as the batarian let go of her neck. She collapsed to the ground, crying in pain. As the pain dulled, she looked up to see the three remaining slavers walk away with an unconscious Daily being carried away.

"They were walking toward the Rooters' farm," Amanda said, tears coming down. "I'm sorry, Troy. I couldn't save her. I couldn't do anything."

"It's okay, Amanda. You did great. You did all you could. That's all I can ask for. Now I want you to stay here. I'll leave the Striker here with you. I'm going after Day. Stay hidden. I'll be back for you," Troy said, finishing up dressing her wound. At the moment, it had stopped bleeding.

Troy looked at her eyes, making sure she would understand. Amanda nodded her head. He kissed her forehead and ran toward the Rooters' farm.

The Rooters' farm only fifteen minutes away. Soon, Troy was creeping toward the prefab unit. He had caught sight of two of the batarians, but didn't want to attack until he found the third. Troy brought up his omnitool to see if he could access this groups com channels. While they wouldn't need it to hear each other, it was probably still active. He was right.

"-elieve that we had to face a biotic kid here. This shithole of a planet shouldn't have anything so valuable here."

"He was strong too. That throw broke most of the bones in Chellak's body. Too bad he died. We could have sold him for a lot of cash."

A third voice came in at this point. "He was too dangerous to keep alive. It's better that he was dead. This pretty little thing will bring us plenty of cash though."

Troy saw the batarian drag in Daily from the kitchen. She was conscious and didn't look much worse for wear.

"If you wouldn't have shot that other one, we could have had two cuties to sell." The batarian stroked Daily's cheek.

The one holding her slapped his hand away. "NO TOUCHING THE MERCHANDISE! Besides, that bitch shot me in the shoulder. I had to repay her in kind. Now she gets to bleed out in the woods."

The batarian that stroke Daily's cheek chimed in again. "Yeah. Did you see how that biotic kid died, holding his throat like it would stop the blood." The batarian grabbed his throat and made mock gurgling sounds before breaking into laughter.

Throughout the conversation, Troy had been looking for a way to attack his sister's captors without hurting his sister. When he witnessed the batarian mock Scott's death, Troy's eyes shot to her. He saw the anger in her boil over.

"No, Day. Don't do it," he whispered to himself.

But it was too late. Daily began to glow blue, and she punched the batarian square on the jaw with as much force as she could muster. She spun on her heels and shoved the leader of the group backwards, pushing him into the wall. The last slaver went to grab her from behind, but he got his nose crushed by the back of Daily's head.

Daily walked over to the area where batarian who had mocked Scott fell. She looked down at him and held her hands in a way that made it look like she was holding a small, imaginary ball. Daily began to focus, and her biotic aura was being pushed into a sphere she was containing in her hands.

"Damn it, Day. You know you're too weak of a biotic to make a warp," Troy whispered.

Scott had showed her once how to make a warp. Daily put all of his lessons that he taught her to use as she was going to kill this scum that mocked his dying moments. Both Shepards were so absorbed in what she was doing that they failed to notice the leader walk up behind her with the glint of a knife in his hand. He grabbed her hair, pulled her head back, and ran the knife across her throat. Daily's blue aura changed into a red mist as her blood sprayed from her throat. Her lifeless body fell into a lump at the batarian's feet.

"NOOOOOO!" Troy screamed and sighted down his rifle.

The batarian with the knife scanned out the door to find where the voice came from. He never found the source as a bullet entered his upper right eye, killing him instantly. The other two saw their leader tumble down the front steps. They readied their weapons and took cover by the windows. The quieter one from the group peaked out to see if he could find the sniper. He was rewarded with a bullet through the skull.

The last of the four man group was terrified. This was supposed to be an easy slave run. This was a small colony. This shouldn't be happening. He blind fired out of the window, trying to kill whoever was out there. He radioed back to the main base, saying that he needed back up. He didn't notice the person coming up behind him.

"You won't be alive to see them."

He turned around to find Troy pointing a pistol directly in the middle of his four eyes. He never heard the gun go off.

Troy dropped the pistol and walked slowly to his sister's body. He turned her over and saw her stunned face, eyes looking at nothing. He closed her eyes and cradled her head.

"I'm sorry, Day. I'm so sorry. I didn't get here in time. I couldn't….." Tears spilled from his eyes. "I couldn't save you. I'm so sorry, Day."

Troy heard the sound of engines in the distance, and they were getting louder very quickly.

Troy wiped his eyes clean. "I'm going to be going for a little bit, Day. But I'll be back for you. I won't let leave you here for long. I promise I'll be back."

He kissed her forehead. It was cool to his lips. Troy ran out the front door and picked up his hunting rifle where he left it when he snuck around the back of the house. He sprinted back toward the boulder. He was sure the shuttle saw him running away because it turned toward him.

When Troy reached the boulder, he shouted over to Amanda. "Stay down, Amanda! We have a shuttle coming in."

When he didn't hear a response, he searched for her in the tree line. He finally saw her moving further into the forest to hide. Troy smiled when he saw that she was still alive.

He turned back to the direction the shuttle was coming. Troy saw it land on the top of a hill and he sighted down to where he believed the shuttle would open. He was off by a meter, but quickly adjusted and found his first target. He pulled the trigger.

The bullet should have struck the slaver in the eye, but it was deflected by a bluish hue. The batarian did recoil from the shear amount of force that the bullet possessed.

_Damn it. They have shields. And they are too far away to hit them with an overload._

Troy did the only thing he could do at this point. He kept firing. Four more shots sprang from his rifle before the slaver's shield finally fell. Troy lined up one more shot, pulled the trigger, and watched the batarian slump. He felt the hunting rifle open a compartment and dump the heat that had been built up.

Troy crouched behind the boulder and looked at his shield strength. He was surprised that it was only at 35%. He was so caught up in his rage and need to protect the last person of his group that he didn't even realize he was taking shots. He boosted his shields with the reserves from his omnitool and looked at the position of the remaining slavers.

There were only two more, and they stayed close to one another. Ducking back into cover, Troy reached for his pistol only to find nothing. He remembered that he dropped it in the Rooter's house and forgot to pick it back up when he took off. He was left with an overheating rifle and his tech.

Troy peaked out again and found that the slavers were closing on his position fast. He primed one of this tech mines with an overload protocol and threw it, trying to land in between the two. The mine bounced once on the ground in front of the two batarians and headed toward the area between the two. Troy detonated the mine.

The two screamed in surprised as their shields failed against the overloading blast and shrapnel. Troy used the time of their disorientation to prime another mine with the incinierary program and tossing it at the two. This time, the mine struck the first batarian and held fast to his armor.

The mine exploded, spreading its jelly-like substance all over the batarian. He screamed as his armor began to melt into his skin and tried to wipe it off without success. As the gel reached his skin, the man slumped to the ground either passed out due to pain or dead from his wounds.

The last of the three man crew began to fire wildly at the boulder, trying to fend off their attacker. The bullets struck the rock and ground with little result. Soon, he heard the beeping that alerted him to an overheated weapon. He looked down to see the heat sink open up, attempting to dumb the heat quicker. He looked back toward the boulder to see a rifle aimed directly at him.

As the last slaver slumped to the ground, Troy turned his attention to the shuttle, making sure that no more slavers would come from it. When he saw no movement, Troy slowly moved toward the tree line, never dropping his rifle or stop looking down its sights. Only when he was in the safety of the forest again did he drop his guard and start searching for Amanda. He found her moments later, leaning up against another tree. She looked paler than before.

"Can you walk? We need to get out of here. They will probably want to find out what happened to their shuttle," Troy stated.

Amanda replied weakly. "I don't think so. I'm pretty tired… and cold."

Troy went to go grab a blanket from the packs they left at the tree line.

"Okay. We'll stay here. Hopefully, they won't come looking for their missing people. I'll protect you if they do," Troy said as he wrapped the blanket around her and held her close. She felt cool to the touch.

Amanda let out a small laugh. "Always have to be the hero, don't you? I guess it's one of the things that caught my eye about you."

"Really? I didn't know that."

Troy felt his arm that was around her back growing wet and noticed the blanket start to get sticky. He looked down to inspect what was dripping on him and found a red covering his forearm. Troy looked at the bandages and saw a red splotch that was continuing to grow.

"No, no, no," Troy whispered.

"What's wrong?" Amanda asked.

He gently put her back on the tree and got the first aid kit. Troy knelt back down beside her, removed the old bandaged, and saw that the wound had reopened. He searched through the first aid kit for more medi-gel. There was none. He threw the bag further into the woods and began to cry into his hands.

Troy felt a cool hand brush up against his cheek. He looked up to see Amanda's questioning eyes.

"Tell me what's wrong," she said.

"I can't stop the bleeding. There is no more medi-gel to stop it. You're going to… going to…" Troy couldn't continue, deciding instead to hold her close.

They sat there like that for a few moments that felt like hours. Troy didn't even try to hold back the tears that fell from his eyes.

"I'm sorry I won't be around to keep you out of trouble," Amanda finally said.

"Don't apologize. You'll always be with me, keeping me out of trouble."

"Thank you, Troy. I want you to go to my house and get my diary. Read the last entry, and **only** the last entry," she commanded weakly.

"What are yo-," Troy started to say.

Amanda didn't let him finish. "Promise me that you'll read it. Prom…"

Troy felt Amanda go limp in his arms. He squeezed her tighter and kissed the top of her head, tears streaming down his face.

"I promise."


	7. Chapter 6 The Words

**Chapter 6: The Words**

Thirty minutes later, an Alliance shuttle set down next to the batarian one, and a group of four marines left to find why it did not leave with the rest of the force. They quickly found their answer when they noticed the four dead on the side of the hill, one smoking and charred. Following the path of destruction, the soldiers found the body of a teenage boy with a hole in his neck. His eyes were closed which probably meant that there may be survivors in the area.

The commanding officer ordered his men to start searching the tree line for any survivors that might be hiding there. One private found three backpacks clumped together and a fourth one just a little bit farther into the woods. The squad followed that direction to find another teenage boy cradling a limp teenage girl in his arms. When they tried to approach him, he lifted the rifle that was close by with one hand and stared them down.

A few tense moments passed before the boy realized that they were human, and they were here to help him. He wordlessly slung the rifle over his shoulder, picked up the lifeless girl, and started to walk out of the forest.

One of the privates tried to stop him.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

The boy glared at the man who blocked his way. The soldier quickly stepped aside and let him pass. The rest of the squad walked out with him. The commanding officer walked up beside him.

"Are there any more of you out here?" he asked.

"No," was his blunt reply.

The officer was taken aback from the young boy's tone, but quickly regained his composure.

"Let one of my men take her from you. You've been through a lot."

"I'm fine."

"But you must be tir-"

"I said, 'I'm fine,'" he said, more vehemently this time.

"Okay, son," the officer replied.

"If you want to help, you can tell one of your men to carry Scott." He gestured toward the boy by the boulder.

"We won't leave him behind. Lt. Zabaleta, bring that boy with us."

The fourth member of the squad nodded and walked over to the body. The leader of the group noticed how quiet and timid the Lt. was being. Zabaleta was probably horrified by the terrors he witnessed here. He would have to keep an eye on him.

The group walked up the hill, back to their shuttle. The boy laid the girl he was carrying gently inside the craft. Just before he stepped into the waiting craft, he stopped.

"My sister is in the Rooter home fifteen minutes from here. We need to go pick her up."

The commander realized that the boy meant his sister's body was still in the other home. "We'll send someone back out here to get her. We need to make sure you are okay first. Let's go, son."

The boy did not move.

"I'm not leaving my sister there," he said flatly.

"Be reasonable. We don't have much more room in this shuttle. We need to get back."

"Then take these two. I'll go get my sister and walk back to colony if I have to. I'm not leaving her here."

The leader stared at the boy hard, but he did not budge. There was no leeway with this demand.

"All right, son. Let's go get your sister."

They shut the doors and quickly made it to the Rooter's farm. When the doors opened, the squad was stunned at the amount of dead batarians that were around this boy.

"Did you do all of this?" one private asked him.

He didn't respond. They saw him silently walk into the house, heard some shuffling, and witnessed him walk out with a young girl in his arms, her throat slit viciously.

He walked past the gawking squad and placed her in the shuttle next to the other two. He calmly stepped in, sat down in one of the seats, and leaned his head up against the bulkhead, his eyes staring at nothing at the top of the shuttle. The rest of the men clambered into the vehicle and simply watched at the boy as they made their way back to the colony.

* * *

><p>When he got back to the main colony, Troy had found out the damage that the batarian slave run had caused to Mindoir. Out of the 3,000 colonists, a little more than 100 were alive. And over half of those that didn't make it, never left the colony; their bodies lingering were they had fallen. Most of the colonists had made it to shelters, but they were quickly broken into and raided. Only one safe house remained untouched which is where most of the 100 were located.<p>

Troy had also learned the fate of his parents. When John and Hanna found out about the raid, they took off toward the colony to help fend off the slavers. They arrived to find batarians trying to work open one of the bunker doors. They found cover and began to pester them with bullets and, when their guns overheated, rocks. When the Shepards saw the slavers bring in explosives, they increased their meddling. They were eventually gunned down, but they interrupted them enough to keep them from setting the explosions. Between them and the tech expert inside, the shelter was never overtaken.

Troy was horrified when he looked for any trace of the Jefferson family. Mr. Jefferson never made it out of his work place. He was found pinned to a wall by debris, suffocated from the inability of his lungs to expand. Mrs. Jefferson and Talitha had made it to one of the shelters, but it was one of the first ones taken according to the records. Their bodies were not found within or around the colony.

Troy couldn't find any trace of Amanda's parents. They were never registered as present in any of the shelter databases, and their bodies had not yet been found. He hoped that they were mercifully crushed under some rubble that he found on the way to their house or disintegrated by one of the shuttle's fire and not taken as slaves.

When Troy finally found Amanda's house and was surprised that it was still standing with all the debris that surrounded the area. He had to walk in the house through the back door as the front had a part of another building blocking it.

Once inside, he looked around at the wreckage. There were large chunks of another prefab in half of the home. The kitchen, living room, and dining room were inaccessible, blocked by debris. Luckily, the bedrooms came through the ordeal unscathed.

Troy found Amanda's room and began to search the bookshelves and drawers for the datapad that held her journal. He finally found it in the nightstand. When he lifted it, Troy found that it felt much heavier than other datapads he has held; it had a weight that went beyond the physical mass. He sat down on the bed, wondering what could have been so important on it. After mentally preparing himself, Troy hit play.

"Hey Diary. Today was pretty uneventful. Since school is finishing up and my homework is all done, I'm left with a lot of free time now. I get so bored out here on this little colony sometimes. It's fun when my parents are around, but, since Mom and Dad are so busy with work right now, I ended up spending the day out on Troy's family's farm.

"When I got there, Mrs. Shepard told me that Troy was in the barn 'taking care of Felt.' I knew that meant he was in there working on one of his little tech projects, and he would be oblivious to the galaxy for an hour or two. Figured I would have more fun staying in the house and talk with Mrs. Shepard.

"She said something that kinda scared me. She told me that I reminded her of herself when she was younger. I'm sure she meant it as a compliment, but I really really hope I'm not just Troy's substitute for his mom. I don't think I am. I mean, he has never compared me to his mom.

"Maybe I'm just blowing this out of proportion. Would it be so bad to be like Mrs. Shepard? I mean, she is a strong woman that I look up to. She has become a second mother to me since I started hanging out there…"

Troy looked down at the datapad, making sure that the pause was not due to it breaking down. It was still running so he lay back on her bed, finding her aroma still clinging onto her sheets despite the dust that seemed to be everywhere after the attack. He paused the recording and let her presence take him somewhere else, a place more serene and simple.

After a few moments, Troy hit play again to let her angelic voice fill her room. He could hear the smile on her lips.

"They are all like a second family to me. Mr. Shepard may be a little quirky, but he can make a stone laugh by the ridiculousness of some of his jokes. And that smile. Why did Troy have to inherit that smile? That stupid thing has probably gotten both of them more jams than you can count.

"Daily is the sister I never had. I think I'm closer to her than I am with my friends from school. We just share so many interests like shopping, crafts, and gossip. And of course, she always wants help with Scott.

"Her birthday is in a couple of days. Maybe I should get her something. Troy showed me what he made for her. For as much of a goofball as he is, he has a knack for good gifts."

Amanda laughed to herself. The sound made tears come to Troy's eyes.

"Mrs. Shepard made a joke about how close Daily and I are. She said, 'You two talk like sisters, act like sisters, and even torment Troy like sisters. The only thing you two don't do is argue like sisters. You would fit in just fine in this family.' If Troy heard that, his face would have been beet red. And Mrs. Shepard would have teased him for it."

Amanda paused again, this time for several minutes. Troy sat up and looked to the datapad, trying to discern what may have made her pause this time. Her answer came as a surprise to him.

"Troy… I swear. It's his goal in life to make me uncomfortable. The jokes he says embarrass the crap out of him. His kisses in public make me want to run and hide in a small, dark corner. And when he calls me 'babe' or 'dear,' makes my heart skip a beat. I would never let him know that though. He would be relentless with it.

"I can't believe how fast we are moving. We've only been together for a few months. I told him I wanted to take it slow. Steve crushed me when I saw him kissing Sarah a year ago. I didn't even want to date anyone, but Troy was relentless. When I finally gave in, I actually had a really good time with him.

"He's a great guy. He told me that he wanted to be my boyfriend, but didn't push too hard when I said I needed some time. That's just the way he is. God, why does that jerk have to be so amazing? I've never cared for anyone as much as I care for Troy. It's like I was missing a vital piece, but just never knew about it, never knew what it felt like to be complete. And now that I do know what it's like, I never want to go back. I-"

Troy paused the journal. The tears that had been held back had begun to flow freely from his eyes.

_Don't say it, Amanda. Not after what happened…_

He thought about deleting the entire datapad and walking away, never hearing what she had to say. But he made a promise to Amanda. Even though he couldn't fulfill most of the promises he made that day, Troy was going to go through with this one.

"-think that I love him. No. I know that I love him. Never been so sure of anything in my life.

"But what if he doesn't feel the same way about me? No, no, no. I know he does. I've seen his mouth start to form the 'L' word before he stopped himself. He probably doesn't want to push me to say them back. I should tell him. I need to tell him. I would burst if I didn't.

"Tomorrow. I'll tell him tomorrow. We made plans to go out for a picnic for dinner. I'll tell him then. As long as Scott doesn't knock him senseless when he tries his new shield. He didn't just get the wind knocked out of him last time. He didn't know where he was. But I'll make sure Scott knows that I need him functioning later, and what will happen if he messes with my picnic.

"I can't wait for tomorrow."


	8. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Hey, Day. I was just coming by to say goodbye. I'm leaving in a few days, so I won't be able to come by as often as I usually do. Just wanted to let you know so you don't get worried that I'm off doing something crazy."

Troy was in front of his family's graves. Almost two years had passed since that fateful day. Troy had gone to stay with another family that survived the attacks on another colony close by. He still came back to Mindoir almost every month, using his proficiency with tech to rent a shuttle for his trips. Troy found a sense of peace when he talked to them. It was almost like they never left.

"I found something in my stuff for you. It took them almost two years to send me the stuff from our home. Can you believe it? And just before I am leaving too. At least I could find my wool bracelet you made for me from Felt's wool."

Troy thrust his arm out in front of him to display the red bracelet wrapped around his wrist. He never used to wear it, fearing that it might break while working on the farm. Now, he rarely was seen without it since finding it.

"But I'm getting off track here. Your present. We never got to celebrate your 15th birthday. I finished making this for you two days before…" Troy's voice trailed off.

He put down the bag he was carrying and pulled something from it.

"I'm sorry I never got a chance to give it to you sooner. They wouldn't allow me to go back home to look for it. I guess better late than never. Happy Birthday, Day. Sorry I didn't bring you a cake."

Troy had made a wool bracelet from Felt just like the one Daily made for him, only yellow. He wasn't skilled at crafts like his sister, but he wanted to give her something that she could take with her to the Alliance. He secured it around a stick and stuck it into the ground in front of her gravestone.

"It's not as pretty as the one you made me, but I hope you like it."

After a few thoughtful moments, Troy said, "I can't believe I'm the one who eventually is going to be an Alliance marine, after they send me to the Academy that is. And they are going to make me an officer while they are at it! How crazy are these people?

"Scott told me it is a good idea. He always thought I would make a great leader, said he would follow me anywhere if he could. I told him only if he would be my second in command. He laughed and said he would like that.

"The idiot asked for my forgiveness again today. Told him not to worry about it. He did everything he could to keep you safe. I told him how proud I am to have him as a friend and how, if I had to pick one guy for my little sister to date, it would be him.

"Amanda yelled at me today. She told me I was just trying to be some kind of hero. She is right. She was always right when it came to me. I convinced her that this was for the best. I have nothing left for me here. She finally relented and told me that she was proud of me.

"Mom and Dad said they are very proud too. Dad said that I'm finally taking the Shepard family motto to heart. I think I heard Mom's eyes roll in her head. They said they always knew that we would do something great if given the chance…"

Tears began to flow from his eyes. Out of their little group of four, Troy was the only one to have the chance to do something with his life. He wasn't going to waste it.

Troy sniffed back the tears. "I'll be back as often as I can, Day. I know you would miss me if I stayed away too long. Bye, little sis."

With that, Troy turned and walked back to his rented shuttle. He climbed into the pilot seat and began the startup procedures. Troy took one last look at Mindoir before flying away, leaving his home behind.


End file.
